Exlter medium ob other abticiie of mauufactitbe



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l ,g l gg, Patented May 27, 1919.

2 SSSSSSSSSS ET l FEQ FE@ 2 FE@ 3 llllllll EEnEs'r J. svvEErLAnn, or' Mont-:etnia NEW JERSEY.

FILTER MEDIUM R OTHER ARTICLE OF MANUFACTURE.

neonata.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May at, iota.

Original application led. May 25, 1914, Serial No.- M0331. Divided and this application filed June 9, 1915.

` Serial No. 33.156.

T0 all whom t may concern Y. Y

Be it known that I, ERNEST J. SWEETLAND, a citizen 0f the United States, residing in the town of Montclair, county of Essex, and State of New J ersey,have invented certain new and useful Improvements -in Filter Mediums or other Articles of Manufacture, of which the following is a specification.

My inventionr relates particularly toa filter medium comprising a woven fabric of fine metallic Wires. I-Iitherto the filter medium i ymost used has been cloth, and for many purl" only poses this is entirely satisfactory. However, when `the substance to be filtered contains an agent which is destructivel of cloth, such, for instance, as strong alkalis, Ithe cloth filter medium is rapidly destroyed. To replace the destroyed cloth representsynot a considerable expenditure of time and the filter is thrown out of service, but also a large expense for new cloth. rIhe chief object of my present invention is to provide a filter mediumy which maybe used to replace cloth and which will be composed of material that is not attacked bythe agents which l destroy the cloth, but I realize that my imsituations, as will beobvious.

proved fabric may be advantageously used for a number of other purposes in the arts so that, except as specically set forth, I do*` not desire to 'limit' the claims to a filter fabric. For instance, through the fabric under pressure, it is broken up into a fine spray having characteristics different from those of any spray of which I am aware. `The fabric permits a' relatively large volumeof water, or other fluid, to pass through it, but at the same time'breaks it up into 'an exceedingly fine spray which is useful in watering vegetation, in shower baths'andfin many other This is only one additionaluse for my improved fabric, and I do not deem it necessary to set forth others in detail. This application is a division of my co-pending application No. 840,731 filed May 25, 1914.

In my improved filter structure I provide a filter medium which is composed of interwoven metallic wires, which are preferably of an exceedingly small diameter. I am aware that in the filtration of certain substances, the use of fine wire netting or screen has hitherto been proposed, but suchnetting or screen acts as a strainer rather than as a true when water is forced` filter medium, whereas-my improved fabric will filter a slim sludge and obtain therefrom a filtrate w ich is crystal clear. Furthermore, these fine wire screens previously used are so delicate in their texture that their commercial use is practically prohibited under normal conditions of operation and their expense is comparatively great. On the other hand my improved filter.. fabric 1s rugged in its texture and its cost is not exorbitant. Another great advantage of my improved fabric over ordinary screen is the resistance which it o'ers to the passage of air through it. lrIhis is of importance in filtration, since it is common to dislodge the filter cake from the filter medium by introducing compressed air into the filter leaf. If the filter medium is wire screen, a 'small piece of the filter cake will break away first and the compressed air will rush out through the opening thus formed in the cake, so'that the remainder of the cake is not dislodged. My improved fabric offers such aresistance to the passage of the air that the breaking awayE of a small 'piece of the cake in the manner above described will not release the air pressure to any considerable extent and., the remainder of the cake will, therefore,

modified form of construction; Fig. 5 1s a transverse sectional view of the structure of Fig. 4; Fig. -6 is anelevation of .a filter leaf in which my improved fabric 'is utilized Fig. 7 is a transverse sectional viewon line VII- VII of Fig. 6; Fig. 8 is a diagrammatic View similar to Fig. 1, butl showing a twill fabric; Fig. 9 is a-diagrammatic sectional view of the structure of Fig. 8; Fig. 10 is a diagrammatic view similar` to Fig. 3v showing the twill fabric after it has been rolled; Fig. 1l is a diagrammatic sectional view of Fig. 10. p

Referring to the drawings in detail, the numeral 1 ldesignates a filter fabric composed of interwoven warp threads 2 and weft threads 3, each of which threads comprises a plurality or bundle of fine wires.

Each bundle of wires may be formed into a strand prior to weaving y twisting, or the wires may be conveniently aggregated while lying parallel to each other `by the use of soap, wax, or other adhesive, which will cause the wires composing a bundle to cling As an example of the dimensions which are found convenient for lcertain filtration purposes, but without limiting myself in any way to their specific use, I may state that a filter medium may be advantageously woven in which each warp and weft thread is composed of sixty (60) strands of wire 0.003 of an inch in diameter. When these strands are closely interwoven a fabric will :be formed which has nearly one million interstices to the square inch. The finest vscreen or netting of which I am aware is manufactured with about 200 wires each wayto the inch, thus giving about 40,000 interstices. It will thus be seen that in addition to certain other advantages, the fabric as described f above has 25 times as many interstices per y strongly adhere. The filter cake may, thereunit of area. Wires of this general nature may conveniently be termed filamental wires and this term for convenience is used in this specification and claims. In some instances suchl an extremely fine fabric is not needed, and by way of exam le it may be stated that I have found a lter cloth composed of bundles containing five wires each'to be satisfactory for many purposes.

After the fabric is woven Ihlnd that it is extremely advantageous to subject it to pressure, inorder to flatten out the strands and cause a more homogeneous texture. The general appearance of the fabric subsequent to flattening, which is best attained by rolling between pressure rolls, the distance beu tween which may be ad}usted with great precision, is shown in Fig. 3 of the drawings. A very great advantage which inheres in the process of rolling is the fact that such rollinggives to 'the fabric a smooth glasslike surface to which the filter cake will not fore, be readily released from thesurface of the filter fabric either Aby reversing the flow in the manner fully described in .my United States Patent No. 1,083,305, dated January 6, 1914, or in any other of the ways well known in the art of filtration.

In place of constructing both ,the warp and the weft threads of a plurality or bundle invention to a twill of wires, I find that a very satisfactory 7filter fabric'may be obtained by making one set of threads, as for instance, the warp threads, single wires of a diameter which will approximate the diameter of the bundle of aggregated wiresused for the other set of threads. This construction is illustrated in Fig. 4, in which the numeral 4 designates the warp threads composed of single 'wires which are interwoven with the weft threads- 5 composed of bundles of wires, as above. After weaving of this fabric it is preferably subjected to the same operation of rolling or other compression to aggregate its individual elements more homogeneous'iy.

In Figs. 6 and 7 I have shown a filter leaf composed of an outer frame 6 of channel section having inwardly inturned legs 7 and 8.

A nipple 9 is inserted in the frame at one point and has at its inner end split-to form the legs 10 and 11, which straddle a drain- Vage member 12, which may preferably be constructed of coarse screen. On either side of the member 12 is a layer-13 of my improved filter fabric constructed in either of the ways already described. The edges of these layers are retained between the legs 7 and 8 of the channel frame, and sealin lips 14 and 15 may be provided at the edge oeach leg for preventing the passage of the liquid to be filtered between the edge of the leg and the edge of the filter medium.

Such a filterleaf as I have above described may be applied to the type of lter shown anddescribed in detail in my United States Patent No. 1,083,305, dated January 6, 1914.-

as will be obvious,

existing filter media in other well-known l types of filters. 4

While I have shown in Figs. 1 to 5lfof the drawings the so-called basket-weave, it is obvious that the other forms of weaving may -be advantageously employed, such for instance, as that forming a twill fabric. In Figs. 8, 9, 10 and 11 I have illustrated in a diagrammatic way, the application of my fabric which for certain purposes has the advantage of forming a tighter or closer weave than is obtained by the so-called basket-weave. i

It will lbe appreciated thatthe structure, particularly of Figs. 8 and 9, is

diagrams matic and on a greatly enlarged scale. Ink

actual construction the parts are so tightly woven that the interstices appearing in Figs.

8 and 9 between adjacent strands are to a great extent done away with even before the fabric is rolled.

I have shown in Figs. 8 to 11, inclusive, what is known as a two leaf twill, but it will be obvious that other forms of well known twill fabrics may be employed. Furthermore, I have illustrated and de scribed only certain specific embodiments of my invention, but I realize that it is susceptible of wide application and I do not desire to |be limited to the precise construction set forth.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. The process of forming a lter medium, which consists in aggregating into bundles a plurality of metallic wires and weaving the bundles into a closely-woven fabric and then subjecting the fabric so woven to pressure in order to decrease the sizes ofits interstices.

2. The process of forming a filter medium, which consists in aggregating into bundles a plurality of ilamental metallic wires and weaving the bundles into a closely-woven fabric and then subjecting the fabric so woven t0 pressure 'by a krolling action in order to decrease the sizes of its interstices.

3. The process of forming a filter medium, which consists in aggregating a plurality of filamental metallic wires to'form bundles,

Vthen taking a plurality of single wires and weaving'all into a closely woven fabric and then subjecting the fabric so woven to pressure in .order to decrease the sizes of its interstices.

ERNEST J SWEETLAND.

Witness: i

W. R. Wurm. 

